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Description

Scarce map of Peloponese and part of Greece and the Greek Isles, published by De Fer.

Highly detailed map, which includes 12 inset plans of fortified towns and harbors for places within the bounds of the map. The dedication note that the map was prepared from Intelligence gathered from the Venetians and Ottoman Turks, with the plans of each of the forts bearing a date between 1685 and 1687. Zacharachis notes that most editions of the map have the dates in the lower right corner changed in manuscript. We were unable to find any examples of the map appearing at auction or in dealer catalogues in the past 30 years, but we do note the copy in the Catalogue of Maps, Prints & Engravings ... Presented by HIs Majesty King George the Fourth To The British Musuem (Vol. II; p 58).

De Fer's maps are very rare. The maps were typically separately issued or bound into composite atlases by other publishers and there are very few surviving atlases which are De Fer's maps only. De Fer's maps are also noteworthy for being consistently updated. For example, there are 6 known editions of this map, plus 2 variant states with different titles.

Reference
Zacharackis 1492/1002 (5th State)
Nicolas de Fer Biography

Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.

His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.